At The HSUS and Humane Society International, our most important measure is driving positive change on the biggest issues for animals in the United States and abroad. We take on the tough fights, and we so appreciate your steadfast support for our work. Today, I recount our 10 biggest gains of the year. Each gain often constitutes a whole series of wins that drive movement in a major sector of animal use. Please take stock of these gains and celebrate them with us, knowing that we are committed to redoubling our efforts in 2015.

Photo: Alex Gallardo/For The HSUS

Strengthening the U.S. Anti-Cruelty Framework: South Dakota became the 50th state to adopt felony-level penalties for animal cruelty, capping our 25-year campaign to establish strong penalties for malicious cruelty in every state. We helped to pass federal legislation to make it a crime to attend, or bring a child to, a dogfight or cockfight. In a critical defensive maneuver, we stripped the King amendment from the Farm Bill, protecting a wide variety of state laws that could have been overturned. We helped persuade a federal appellate court to overturn a lower court ruling and affirm the constitutionality of the federal animal crush video law passed in 2010. And we helped persuade the FBI to start tracking animal cruelty crimes on a federal level, making it easier to apprehend animal abusers and prevent past abusers from owning animals in future.

Phasing out Gestation Crates Globally: This year, Australia and Canada made commitments to begin phasing out their use of sow gestation crates, Brazil’s largest pork producer agreed to move away from crates, and India shut down its only gestation crate facility. In the United States, we secured commitments from some of the nation’s largest pork producers, like Smithfield Foods, Cargill, Tyson, and Clemens, and from major retailers like Delhaize, to move away from gestation crates. We also helped Wendy’s, Safeway, SUPERVALU, Dunkin Donuts, Denny’s, Jack in the Box and other companies strengthen their gestation crate policies.

Horse Slaughter Suspension: We blocked three horse slaughter plants from opening on U.S. soil, by securing amendments to two massive spending bills in Congress to bar federal dollars for any horse slaughter inspections. We held up horse slaughter plants in the courts until we were able to lock down the issue in Congress. Meanwhile, the European Commission suspended imports of horsemeat from Mexico to the European Union (EU), after lobbying from The HSUS and HSI, and an audit that identified serious food safety issues and confirmed our allegations of rampant cruelty in the Mexico horsemeat trade.. Since 87 percent of the horses slaughtered in EU-certified plants in Mexico originate from the United States, this is perhaps the biggest blow to the entire North American horse slaughter industry since the shutdown of horse slaughter plants in the United States in 2007.

Kevin Wolf/AP Images for The HSUS

New Puppy Mill Rules: After years of effort, we helped secure a new U.S. Department of Agriculture rule prohibiting the import of puppies into the United States for resale, effectively stopping pet stores and brokers from importing tiny underage puppies for resale from foreign puppy mills. We fended off a case in federal court that tried to block last year’s USDA rule to bring Internet sellers of puppy mill dogs under the agency’s regulatory oversight. We assisted with puppy mill raids across the nation and helped pass anti-puppy mill measures in Connecticut and in Minnesota.

Massive Gains Against Chimp Experiments in U.S., Animal Testing Throughout the World: As a follow-up to legislation in Congress to fund the transfer of government-owned lab chimps to sanctuaries, Merck & Co. ended its experiments on chimpanzees. We persuaded India to ban animal testing for cosmetic products and ingredients, and the import of cosmetics tested on animals overseas. With the European Union’s ban on the sale of cosmetics tested on animals coming into force last year, we’ve now created a 1.7 billion– people-strong cruelty-free cosmetics market. We helped China repeal its requirement that domestically-produced cosmetics be tested on animals. In Europe, our team worked through the REACH program to secure the gains that would save hundreds of thousands of animal lives. The National Institutes of Health ceased, in October, to fund research using dogs from Class B dealers and the USDA revoked the license of one of the remaining dealers, a long-sought goal.

Breaking Down Battery Cages: High Courts in two Indian states agreed to hear the case against battery cages. We also won a critical legal ruling to assure implementation in January 2015 of California’s laws banning the extreme confinement of farm animals and also the sale of eggs from hens kept in extreme confinement. We worked with Unilever on its historic commitment to stop the killing of male chicks by the egg industry. And we worked with Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, to announce a new policy to cleanse its supply chain of pork, veal, and eggs from operations that confine animals in cages or crates.

Photo: Keren Su/Alamy

WTO Srikes Blow Against Sealing in Canada: The World Trade Organization Appellate Body largely upheld the European Union’s ban on the trade in products of commercial seal hunts, which we helped achieve, to cut off demand for the Canadian seal slaughters. The ruling also established that animal welfare is a legitimate basis for nations to impose laws that restrict trade. Because of our successful efforts to close global markets for seal products, most sealers chose not to participate in the Canadian seal hunt again this year,

Clamping Down on Japanese Commercial Whaling in International Court: In a historic decision, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s Southern Ocean whaling program violates the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling’s ban on commercial hunting. HSI was the incubator of this legal theory. A few months later, at the International Whaling Commission meeting, our team helped to defeat Japan’s proposal for coastal commercial whaling and to pass a resolution to codify the ICJ’s ruling.

Gains for Wolves: We scored two victories in our effort to halt the slaughter of wolves across the north of the country. In Michigan, we decisively won a ballot measure to stop the wolf hunt and another to remove hunting decisions from a pro-trophy hunting commission. In Wyoming, we helped secure a court ruling reinstating federal protections for the state’s gray wolves.

Ivory and Rhino Horn Bans: At our urging, the New York and New Jersey legislatures banned the sale of ivory – the first state laws of their kind. We worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a new rule, and stopped Congress from undermining that effort. In Vietnam, HSI’s public education program achieved a stunning 38 percent reduction in demand for rhino horn. We worked with federal lawmakers to allow increased collaboration among enforcement agencies on illicit trafficking activities, and to secure tens of millions in funding to curb poaching of elephants and rhinos and trafficking in their parts.

We provided direct care to more than 100,000 animals this year through our animal rescue, veterinary, and animal care programs, and many others. We also played defense, blocking ag-gag laws in almost a dozen states.

The Humane Society of the United States is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions to The Humane Society of the United States are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. The HSUS's tax identification number is 53-0225390.